In a world full of violence, going anywhere without hearing talk of war or death is hard. This makes it increasingly difficult for children to live what could be considered an innocent life.
The life of a child should be one of happiness and hopefulness. Unfortunately, some children are not blessed with the opportunity to live a life such as this for various reasons. But a child should not have this possibility of innocence stolen from him or her just because he or she has a moronic parent.
This week, in Ceres, Calif., Jennifer Zuniga proved to be one of these moronic parents. A tipster informed the police of a video that had been posted to YouTube that deserved the attention of the law. In the video, the camera operator captures a brawl between two young men, but they are not the only stars. Zuniga is the third star of the video as she coaches one of the boys, her son, from the sidelines, telling him what to do in order to win the fight. She can be heard saying things such as, “Beat him down. Body slam him,” and she even goes as far as to tell the boys they can fight in her yard without fear of her calling the police.
The fight ends with a witness stepping in and separating the boy while criticizing the mother for her actions to which she answers, “I don’t care.”
The altercation left one of the young boys bloody and led to Zuniga’s arrest with charges of child endangerment and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
One comment from the man who broke up the fight was, “What kind of example are you, lady?”
Sadly, she is the kind of example many children see in the world today. The world is becoming a place where things that have been looked down upon for centuries are becoming everyday normalities. Many people would think, “It’s 2011. It’s time to change.” Time does not control morality.
Another recent incident in which bad influences played a major role also involves a brawl between two young boys. This one is probably more familiar because it has been all over the news — the incident involving a chubby Australian boy named Casey Heynes.
Heynes, a 10th grade student from Australia, was at school when a bully, who was much smaller than himself, walked up and began taunting him. The bully punched Heynes in the face a couple of times and proceeded to attempt to punch him repeatedly. Heynes took it for a little while, but then he quickly grabbed the bully, lifted him up and then threw him down onto the ground causing the bully’s leg to hit a wooden plank, leading to a severe limp. The video of this altercation is all over the Internet (you know it’s a big deal when people take your video and start setting it to music and making remixes with it). Both boys were suspended and now the bully’s parents are suing Heynes’s parents and expecting an apology.
Throughout my years in school before college, the school handbook clearly stated should not engage in a fight unless it is for self defense. I consider Heynes’s actions to be self defense. All right, maybe there was some hint of him trying to show who was really the boss in that situation, but it was mainly self defense.
I had a similar experience happen to me. When I was about five, my family had to move to England for my dad’s job. I was pretty well-liked over there because I am American. However, there was one boy who wasn’t impressed; he taunted me in many ways, but the main one I remember is he threw a snowball at me which hit me in the eye. This doesn’t sound bad until you realize that he had packed it so tightly that it was a solid ball of ice.
One day, my mom saw me out on the playground when this boy ran up to me and stood there in my face. I’m sure he was taunting me in some way, but I don’t really remember any of this other than from my mom’s stories. He stood there for a while, and, all of a sudden, I pulled back my fist and punched him right in the face. After the blow, I stood hunched over him until he got up and ran away. Needless to say, he didn’t mess with me again.
The Heynes example didn’t really involve direct influence from either child’s parents, but there is one thing both of the occurrences have in common: YouTube.
Fifty years ago, if a fight had broken out between two children, the first idea in an onlooker’s mind would be to rush and try to separate them. Today, the first idea is to grab a camera or camera phone so the whole world can see it.
Jennifer Zuniga might not have been arrested if not for the person who recorded it, but that doesn’t mean it’s right. People witnessing a fight who automatically grab a camera are ignorant and need to ponder if they would want the same done to them.
Even though the world is full of distortion, a child should be able to live an innocent life without a parent thinking he or she will face it sooner or later, so it might as well be now.
Children deserve the chance to be carefree while they can.
Jay Ballard is a freshman majoring in chemistry. He can be contacted at
[email protected].